"Red Hat has recently shared with the world the first ISO images of the system that is supposed to be installed on the OLPC laptops. I suddenly felt an irresistible temptation. I downloaded 291 MB ISO, burned it on a CD and started testing. Here is what I got."

While I do not believe any effort to reinvent is in vain, for if nothing else you learn what makes the originals work so well.

Perhaps it's cynic in me, but I think it's less a case of "learning what made the originals work" than "learning the pragmatic reasons behind the compromises taken by the people who built the originals."